County Worker Pleads Guilty To Stealing Thousands

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FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) – A Broward County employee who has worked in the Clerk of Courts office for nearly 30 years has agreed to a prison sentence of 30 months for stealing thousands of dollars in a filing fee scam.

Cathy Hamilton, 54, pled guilty Monday to one count of fraud in the theft of $36 thousand. In addition to the prison sentence, Hamilton agreed to pay back the money and the $35 thousand the county spent investigating her scam.

As part of Hamilton’s job at the North Satellite office in Deerfield Beach, she would handle the intake of civil lawsuits and civil filings which included collecting filing fees. Broward Sheriff’s Office economic crime investigators determined that Hamilton inappropriately used money from checks presented by a bank to cover the filing fees that she stole from other non-related lawsuit filings during the first half of 2009.

After her sentencing Monday, Hamilton was taken into custody to begin serving her sentence.